


This is war

by Mareridt



Series: 31 Sterek Fics - August edition [11]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Business man Stiles Stilinski, Christmas gift, Happy Ending, Lawyer Derek Hale, M/M, Stiles Stilinski Has a Crush On Derek Hale, Stiles and Derek are each other's Secret Santas, blink and you'll miss it angst, office secret santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 05:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7745746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareridt/pseuds/Mareridt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Our office is doing Secret Santa and we cheated and found out we’re each others and now we’re trying to top the others present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is war

**Author's Note:**

> 11th fic for the 31 sterek fic month! As per usual unbetad, all mistakes are mine!
> 
> Leave lots of kudos and comments! Love ya all! <3

 

“So, does everybody knows what a Secret Santa is?”

Stiles groaned. “Scott, literally _everyone_ here knows what a Secret Santa is. Not that that stops you from explaining it all over again, dude.” he exchanged a resigned glance with Allison when Scott showed them his happy puppy eyes.

“Of course, I want to make sure everybody remembers!” he said. His was such good deeds Stiles found extremely hard being mad at him for anything anytime; Scott was just the innocent hardworker most loyal best friend ever, probably those kind of people who'd be smisted in Hufflepuff and still save the world daily. Stiles of course who'd be the slytherin friend ready to help him conquer the world.

“Go on” Derek spoke from a couple of desks behind, standing tall and dark and handsome – Stiled may have stared for a while – from his corner. Scott nodded and started explaining the tradition their office had since he and Stiles first founded it.

“So, Secret Santa. It's a tradition everyone has to respect if they want to have a gift from the office for Christmas. This year we're lucky, everyone is still here so we're even! No one will have to do a double gift.” Scott took a little back sack from his desk. “Inside the sack there are everybody's name. I will pass by each of you, you will draw out one of the names, _not saying it outloud or showing it to anyone_ , and so on until I'm done; the name on the piece of paper is the name of who your gift will be directed to. Since it's called _Secret_ Santa, no one will cheat, okay? You can tell the others but _not_ the direct interested, if you don't know what to get them.” a pause for effect. “Everything clear?”

“Sir, yes, sir” said Stiles over the general _yes_ , winning a glare from Hale, an elbow in the ribs from Allison and a soft snort from Scott himself. “Now start with the sack, I wanna know who I have to send a gag gift to this year.”

“Oh, shut up, we all know you're the one who always finds the most heartwarming gift for everyone” Malia smirked from his left, winking subtly. Stiles scoffed, slumping in his chair, and didn't answer. Yeah, okay, it was right, he almost never pranked anyone when speaking of Christmas gifts, but it wasn't exactly his fault okay? He had tried the first years, but Christmas was one of the favourites holidays of his mom and he couldn't bring himself to kind of ruin it for someone else. He'd feel like shit.

So when Scott stopped in front of him, Stiles was already trying to think what to take to the person for present, not even for a second considering he might as well draw out the name of...

 _Derek Hale_.

Stiles gasped, biting his tongue not to yelling it outloud. Scott had noticed and had sent him a warning glance, but he wasn't about to fuck it all up just because he apparently sorted out the only guy in the whole office he didn't have a clue what to get for.

He was so, so fucked.

 

 

Derek Hale was their lawyer, actually.

Since when Stiles and Scott founded their company, they had needed lawyers for the contract part of their business. Lydia had been their first lawyer, but that genius of a woman became also their accountant and sort of manager, so they were forced to hire others to fill the empty spot. That was how Derek Hale the best of the best nudging by his reputation, entered in the scene.

With him also Allison, recommended by Lydia herself, and Isaac Lahey. Hale was currently the "alpha" of the two of them, being still the best of the best, and everyone was pretty much happy like that, since it was rumore he behaved like a feral wolf hunting down a prey in a trial. Stiles wanted to assist at one of his processes one day.

He was frequently called "dark, tall and handsome" around the office, his appearance intimidating and extremely hot, something that flared up a lot of their female employers. Stiles would have been a lot more irritated by the futile crush lots of people had on him, causing them to get distracted, if he hadn't been guilty himself.

Still, having the hots for him didn't change the fact that he didn't have a clue what to get him for christmas. Did he know anything else of Derek Hale, expect for the fact that between them a lot of sexual tension was repressed everyday? Of course not, he never even bothered. But now he couldn't go there and ask him questions of his personal life without exposing himself.

He tried to remember if Derek had any close friends between the others, but his mind stayed blank the whole time. Nope, grumpy wolf didn't have buddies in the office, such a shame.

As he looked back to stare at him, Stiles knew he had just one option left.

He had to go through his stuff in the hope something stuck in the drawers would help his cause.

 

 

It had been hard to get everyone to back off from the proximities of Derek Hale's office.

Stiles had found himself forced to call in a favor with Scott the day after, who gave duties to everyone so he had extra time to check everything out, so he entered inside, closed the door and start roomaging through Derek's stuff. He ignored most of the documents and folders obviously regarding lawyers' work, and kept focused on the drawers, trying to get opened every single one without messing too much anything inside.

He found a pendant of a wolf with a triskele on its fur, a picture showing Derek next to a woman with the same dark hair and clear eyes, probably a sister, his wallet and a little piece of paper. Stiles recognized it as the one from the Secret Santa sack and since anything else there was useless he couldn't resist the temptation. He took it, closed the drawer and got up, opening the piece of paper slowly, helding his breath. Maybe he could get some help blackmailing the one who's name was in that...

“What the hell are you doing here?” Stiles had been so immersed in his search he didn't hear the door opening, and now Derek fucking Hale was standing there, in the doorway, trying to kill him with his own two eyes. He probably would have succeeded too if Stiles hadn't got so used to it.

“Uhm, I... Well...” Fuck. Usually he was the one who always had something to say, and now that he really needed to he couldn't come up with a lie to save his own life. Fucking shit, fuck. “I was just...”

“You were going _through my stuff_.” Derek downright growled. “How dare you.”

“I wasn't!” Stiles replied, offended, but he was too quickly and no where near convincible. “I was searching for some folders Allison asked me to get here, you fucker, always doubting of me.”

“Allison as in Allison the lawyer who I just spoke to in the corridor not even five minutes ago?”

Stiles blanched. “Well, shit” he cursed. “Okay, fine, I give up. I was searching something for the Secret Santa since as well as you'll have understood, I...” while talking, he waved the little slip of paper in his hand, and his eyes couldn't but stop on it, reading the name without really intending to. “Wait, you got me too?!” He didn't have read wrong, right? There was a _Stiles Stilinski_ written on the paper. “We got each other?”

Derek suddenly held his breath, rushing to him to take the paper from his hands. “Get out of here, Stilinski!” he ordered. “Or I'll kill you, hide the body and get away with it.”

“You can't do that, I have to get you a present!”

“What I want for present is you out of my sight _now_.”

“Ouch, _touché_.” Stiles stepped aside to redirect toward the door. “Anyway, my gift is gonna be awesome. You will remember it for years after and still thank me about it, that I promise.”

Derek snorted, skeptic. “As if. I'm gonna top you, Stilinski, so be ready to have your gift labelled as shitty confronted with mine.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes, glaring back before taking a hold of the door. “This is war, Hale.”

“A war you will lose, Stilinski.”

Stiles got out of the office slamming the door.

 

 

The following two weeks were a living hell for him.

He was forced to call in a lot of favors in order to knows everytime what Derek was planning to buy him, and since Derek kept on changing the ideas after he changed his, he figured the lawyer had been doing the same thing. No, who was he kidding, Derek didn't need to call in favours; intimidating as he was, he probably did them instead. That didn't change the fact that Stiles ran out of ides pretty quickly.

He had opted for an expensive wallet at first, then for a wolf plushie, then for a white gold silver triskele pendant, then for a complete suit and in the end a weekend at the best luxury spa in the city. Worst thing of all of them? He did buy _every single one_ of the presents before changing them, so Stiles had this box under his bed at home with written over Derek's name he didn't know what to do about. Fuck him and money he could throw for Christmas gift. Fuck everything.

Three days before the end of his time, the office threw the Christmas party, and Stiles could for a moment forget his problems getting wasted and kissing people under the misteltoe. He didn't almost think about Derek, until getting back from the bathroom he bumped into him in the doorway to the main hall.

They went to ignore each other and part ways, but Erica had noticed them, and had noticed also something else entirely. “STOOOP!” she yelled, getting up on her wobbly legs. “You're under the mistletoe! You must kiss before going away!”

Stiles and Derek glared. “No way I'm kissing you” Derek finally mumbled, his piercing eyes boring holes into his face.

“Awesome, because I don't want to kiss you either” he answered back. “I hate you.”

“Oh? And why so?”

“I'm out of ideas for my Secret Santa and it's all your fault. Stop changing your mind, for fuck's sake.” Stiles shoved Derek behind, not even close to be enough strong to actually move him. Derek looked at him absolutely unimpressed, almost disgusted.

“You started this stupid gift war, it's your own fault.”

“It is not!”

“It is.”

“I say nope.”

“I say yep.”

“JUST KISS ALREADY” the whole room roared. Hard to say who made the first step to comply, because suddenly their mouths crushed together, teeth in the way and tongues too heavy and uncoordinate to be pleasant at first, not that that stopped them anyway. Stiles held on his neck for dear life, fingers pulling Derek's hair at the nape, and Derek's hands were bruising his hips. The young man found himself pressed up against the doorway and didn't even remember how, such focused he was on the feeling of Derek kissing him.

The only thing to bring them back to reality was the toom cheering out loud for their sexual tension not so repressed anymore, but Stiles kept his eyes on the lawyer while taking back his breath. They looked at each other for a long time, wondering what to do know, when Derek bended and loaded him up on his shoulders.

“Hey, what are you doing?” called Stiles, feeling like he might throw up upside down as he was.

“Looking for a more intimate place” was the only responde. That, unbelievable but true, shut him up until they reached Derek's office. Then he was uncerimoniously thrown on the couch and his mouth was attacked all over again by another pair of lips.

Stiles smiled in the kiss, thinking that that was an interesting turn of the events.

 

 

It turned out drunk sex was a great idea and at the same time it wasn't. How was Stiles so sure of it?

Simple, in the afterglow, they started talking. Alcohol was still flooding in his system, so he wasn't entirely surprised, but usually he wasn't that ready to talk to anyone about personal stuff like he was doing in that moment. “Her name was Claudia” he found himself mumbling, eyes fixed on the ceiling and fingers brushing Derek's eyes, not even sure if he was still awake or deep in the world of dreams. “She died when I was eight.”

He told Derek about his mother, about frontotemporal dementia, about the agony and the pain, the funeral and the panic attacks that followed; he told him how his dad had started drinking, how he was still accusing himself of something there was no way it could have been his fault; he told how high school had been a living hell for his as a walking-around nothing until he improved his lacrosse game. He told him how much he missed his dad, since it had been two years since he could last go visit him in Beacon Hills. “That would be my ideal gift” he whispered. “Having my dad back.”

After that, he didn't really expect Derek to say something, but Derek did. “My family died in a fire when I was sixteen. The only survivors had been me, two of my sisters and my uncle.” the lawyer told him about his family, how the fire started and how Laura, Cora and Derek moved to New York to cope with their loss; he told him about his first girlfriend, Paige, dying in his arms after a car accident, and about Kate, the psychopath wooing him and then killing his family. He told him about Jennifer, another woman he had a relationship with before starting to work for Stiles and Scott and how she releaved being a cannibal, responsible of multiple murders. He told him about the following failures in his love life. "I just want to have someone I can tell they love me for real" Derek whispered in the end. "Is it too much to ask for?"

Stiles didn't answer, marvelling at how the two of them made quite a pair with all the bad luck. He kept on petting Derek's hair, humming somewhere in his dazed mind a lullaby. The other man slowly relaxed further in his embrace, and they fell asleep like that.

 

 

Three days later, Stiles didn't know where exactly he stood in his relationship with Derek. They hadn't really discussed about it, sheltering instead on what could still be considered safe ground, like the gift war. Stiles understood they had both found the perfect give though when he couldn't found out was the man had chosen, and since no one else knew about Stiles' gift but himself, Derek couldn't know about him either.

He waited for the “ending ceremony” avoiding the man like plague, only to find him glaring worse than usual from his seat. Scott had promised Stiles to call him in the very end, so it would be obvious who Derek's Secret Santa was and vice verse. He didn't pay attention at anyone else during the ceremony, not caring about his coworkers unwrapping the presents and trying to guess who had sent it to them. When finally it was Stiles' turn to unwrap his gift, Stiles just shrugged.

“I didn't find anything in my office” he said to Scott. “Derek probably forgot it at home.”

“I did not” Derek replied. “Your present is just behind my door.”

Stiles frowned and Scott stared suspiciously at Derek, but the man simply got up and walked to the door of his office, opening it slightly. “Sorry it took this much” he apologized to someone in the office. That someone laughed back, opening further the door, and stepped outside in the main room, introducing himself to all the others as John Stilinski, Stiles'....

“Dad!” Stiles couldn't help but exclaim, jumping off his desk in order to run into his father's arms, hugging him tightly and on the verge of tears. “Oh, my god, are you really here?”

“I am, kiddo” John answered, sliming openly. He waved at a shocked Scott before turning his attention on his son. “This lawyer of yours paid me the flight, I came as soon as I could.”

Stiles looked at Derek, who was trying with all he had to hide a triumphant smile on his lips, not succeeding that well. He nodded, smiling with teary eyes. “Thank you, Derek.” he said wearing his heart on a sleeve. “I guess the least I can do is give you your own gift?”

Derek shrugged as if it was no big deal, but Stiles could see the curiosity in his irises. He left his father's embrace to step closer to him, stopping just enough to leave a few inches between their faces. “You told me you want someone to love you for real, Derek” he whispered. “And in these days, I think I found one who does.” Derek's eyes widened as Stiles cupped his face, smiling uncertainly. “I think I do.” before the other could protest in any way, Stiles pressed his lips against Derek's in a kiss different from all the others they shared, keeping it deep and sweet, pouring his love and gratefullness in it until he had to part from him to breathe again. Stiles ignored the entire office cheering them to take in Derek's face flushed, his eyes teary as well, his breath ragged and his lips trembling.

“I... I don't know what to say” Derek confessed, loud enough for the once Sheriff Stilinski to hear.

“It's not your turn to talk” he said, making both men turn toward him. “It's Stiles'. Is there anything I should know, son?”

Stiles blushed furiously at that, having forgotten for a moment his dad's presence just a metre from them. “Uhm... this is Derek, my... my boyfrien?” he couldn't help but turn to the other for a confirmation, but Derek instead of nodding bursted out laughing and let his head fall on Stiles' shoulders, arms sneaking behind his back to hug him tightly by the waist.

“This is the best Christmas gift ever” he mumbled against his neck, making him shivering. Stiles chuckled.

“”Yeah, this is my boyfriend.”

 

 

“Derek, would you like to come by for dinner for Christmas? I kind of have to give you all the other discarded gift I ended up buying and then throwing away. They are quite a handful.”

“Stiles, you're the worst.”

“Yeah, but you love me anyway.”

“Yeah... I do.”

 


End file.
